Gaming machines and specifically slot machines currently exist with mechanical or video reels having symbols thereon. In general, a player is awarded one or more credits in a slot gaming machine when one or more randomly generated symbols or combination of symbols appear on a payline. Known gaming devices also award credits for combinations of scattered symbols.
To increase player enjoyment and excitement provided by gaming machines, gaming device manufacturers constantly strive to provide players with new types of gaming machines that attract players and keep players entertained. One proven way manufacturers use to make their gaming machines more popular is to increase the number and variety of winning combinations and provide more opportunities for the player to win. Providing more variety and opportunities holds the player's interest for a longer time and also enables the manufacturer to have a wider range of payouts for the winning combinations.
To increase the number and variety of winning combinations, manufacturers have increased the number of paylines, the number of symbol positions or paystops and the number of gaming reels.
Paylines are generally predetermined arrays or reel stop positions of the set of reels where the gaming machine evaluates whether a predetermined combination of symbols occurred. A payline may consist of any number or configurations of positions of gaming symbols. For example, a payline for a set of reels can consist of a horizontal line of gaming symbols along the reels, or a diagonal line of gaming symbols along the reels, or a line overlapping several rows along the reels. It is well known to provide gaming machines with multiple paylines. With the increased complexity of the number and the positioning of the paylines on a singular set of reels, it becomes increasingly unwieldy for the gaming software to evaluate a winning combination or combinations of gaming symbols. At some point, adding variety yields diminished returns because of increased complexity. Multiple winning combinations may also become too complex for the player (i.e., a player may win after a given spin of the reels and find it difficult to determine how, where or why the player has won).
Gaming manufacturers have also increased the number of symbol positions or paystops. Increasing the number of paystops increases the number of different symbols a game can have and increases the number of times a particular symbol can appear. One way manufacturers have increased the number of paystops has been to increase the size of the reel to accommodate more stops. Original gaming machines had approximately ten stops per reel, modern mechanical reels have approximately thirty to thirty-five stops per reel and modern video machines have no technical physical limit. Increasing the number of times that a symbol can appear increases its likelihood of appearance, which affects the payout of a winning combination containing that symbol.
Another way manufacturers have increased the number of paystops has been to add reels. Many current slot machines display a set of five reels with three gaming symbols visible on each reel. This results in a visible set of gaming symbols in a three by five configuration. Slot machines may also utilize more than five reels and/or more than three visible gaming symbols on each reel, such as a ten reel configuration with ten visible gaming symbols on each reel. Such a slot machine may have a large number of potential paylines on a singular set of reels. As with increasing the paylines, the additional reels increases the complexity of the slot machine and eventually the slot machine becomes too unwieldy for the player and/or its software. For example, video reel machines have not increased the number of reels above five mainly because five reels created enough diversity to keep the game interesting without becoming too complex for the player to enjoy.
Current gaming machines also provide secondary or bonus games in addition to primary games. These secondary or bonus games are generally different from the primary game. The secondary or bonus games are generally played separately from the primary game. For instance, secondary or bonus games may be evaluated with a different set of predetermined combinations of the gaming symbols and/or different paylines. Bonus games may also be completely different games.
It should accordingly be appreciated that gaming machines have become rather complex in comparison to the original three reel, ten stop machine created before 1900. At some point, adding variety yields diminished returns as the inevitable accompanying complexity of placing multiple bets and trying to keep tract of multiple winning combinations for each bet becomes too complex for the player. A player may win after a given spin of the reels and find it difficult to determine how, where or why the player has won. Mechanical reels, which are limited in drum radius, have limited space with which to display the multitude of symbols. Simulated reel displays are also limited in size to make room for other input devices and displays requiring panel space. The limited display space and viewing area furthers the complexity created by the multitude of paylines and winning combinations.
Therefore, a need exists to create new and exciting games which increase the player's enjoyment and excitement. It is desirable to provide new gaming machines wherein a player has the opportunity to increase the number and variety of winning combinations and provide more opportunities for the player to win. It is also desirable to provide new gaming machines with new games whereby players can easily recognize winning combinations of gaming symbols, how those symbols were generated, and how and where the player won.